[HarryT]

I had rather a sleepless night last night, and in desperation I finally turned my bedroom TV on about 3am and saw the final portion of the live broadcast of the debate between Mr. Obama and Mr. McCain.

Although I realise that different countries do things in different ways, I was very surprised to see the approach taken by both gentlemen: whenever they were asked by a member of the audience something like "can you tell me how X is going to affect me", rather than explaining their own policy (ie answering the question that had been asked) they'd typically say something like "that's a very good question, and let me tell you why the other candidate's approach to X is going to be bad for you).

Politicians in the UK don't do that - they spend the very limited TV time they have in, generally speaking at least, laying out their own policies and tell people why they should vote for them, rather than denigrating the "opposition".

After watching the debate I was left wondering what either gentleman's policies actually were. All that I seemed to have learned is why each was going to do bad things.

It doesn't seem a terribly constructive way of doing things to me but, there again, I was watching as an outside observer.